WEST Yorkshire Police Federation has backed calls for footage captured by officers' body-worn video cameras to be shared with the public.

In recent years, a number of high profile videos have been shared on social media, showing officers making arrests and stops, but the police organisation said it would stop officers being "hung, drawn and quartered" on social media.

The Federation said these videos are "edited in a way to make officers actions look unprofessional" while being accompanied by anti-police messaging and hashtags.

As many forces refuse to sanction the release of officers' own video footage, the Federation said many officers feel they do not get a right to reply.

Today West Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Brian Booth agreed with the national Police Federation of England and Wales that footage should be published.

"This is about protecting officers for doing their jobs right," he said.

"It’s not helpful when celebrities doctor footage for their individual gain or political gain with a hashtag which goes viral.

“It’s shameful that we, as the police, have to sit back silently and let it escalate so that public only see one side. 

“Officers are being hung, drawn and quartered on social media with no right to reply.

“Then, because it gets shared so much, the incident gets referred to the IOPC.

“It’s not right, on many occasions it’s wasting police money - we should be putting out the true story with body-worn video footage straight away,” Mr Booth added.

In response to the campaign, some forces have argued that putting out footage might publicise the rare occasions when officers do something wrong.

But Mr Booth argued that this stance "isn't right".

He continued: “If the officer in question has done something wrong, then put the officer through an investigation – hiding behind saying officers do bad things and we shouldn’t publicise it isn’t right.

“We can say we have reviewed the video and the officers are under formal investigation meaning we cannot share it.

“But in the majority of cases, the officer will have done nothing wrong – if the footage is reviewed and that’s the case then get it out there!”